Marine vessels are vehicles designed for transporting persons and/or goods over a body of water. Vessels are used for a variety of purposes such as recreation, fishing, or cargo transportation. Such vessels are normally designed optimally be for their particular application. In some situations it is desirable to have a vessel that is more versatile in that is can be used for more than one purpose. In such a situation it is beneficial that the vessel is designed and configured to suit all its intended purposes. Due to the specific nature of some applications, designing a vessel for multiple applications can be problematic. It is beneficial to have a vessel that is reconfigurable to more readily allow it to be configured for a variety of specific applications.
In some applications it is desirable to transport an auxiliary vehicle over a body of water. Traditionally this has been done using large ferries and barges with suitable loading ramps and/or doors. In some situations it is desirable that several vehicles can be transported on a smaller vessel.
So called landing craft are well known and have been used extensively through history for carrying small numbers of people and vehicles for deploying on land. Various systems are employed for allowing ingress and egress of vehicles and persons from such vessels such as ramps and/or doors. Some such landing craft, in addition to being waterborne, also include systems for allowing the vessel to move across land by means such as tracks or wheels. Many of such vessels were used for military applications and are configured for the specific purpose of deploying people on a piece of land, for example amphibious armoured personal carriers.
There is a need for a vessel suitable for carrying and deploying an auxiliary vehicle that is also suitable for other applications.